The present invention relates to a soap case having a receiving portion for receiving a bar of soap in a standing position, and more particularly, to a soap case having a receiving portion for guiding the receiving of the soap voluntarily in a standing position by the load of the soap, which has a geometrical space into which a bar of a soap is received in an upright position and also a portion formed of intentional curved side surfaces and bottom surfaces having the function of making point-contact with the received soap.
In general, there are various types of soap cases and a typical conventional soap case is shown in FIG. 1. The soap case 10 has a main body 12 for receiving a bar of soap 100, which consists of a space portion 11 having a flat bottom surface and a plurality of water draining slits 12a. In the soap case 10, the wide surface of the soap 100 horizontally contacts the bottom surface of the main body 12 as the soap 100 is received into the soap case 10. Thus, water left wide upper surface of the soap does not drain rapidly and since there remains a large amount of water at the contact surface between the lower surface of the soap and the bottom surface of the case, the lower surface of the soap softens and disintegrates.
To solve the above problems, there have been many suggestions. However, the following fundamental problems remain unsolved.
First, a large area of the wide surface of a bar of soap continues to contact the bottom surface of a case. Second, even in the case when the bar of soap is received in a standing position, the bar of soap must be carefully placed into the soap case to make it stand upright. Third, when standing upright, the bar of soap easily falls flat due to a lack of supporting means. And fourth, there is a burden placed on the user to place the bar of soap in a particular position since there is no function of guiding the soap to voluntarily stand upright in the soap case when the soap is not put into the soap case in an upright position.
FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a soap case according to the conventional technology. In FIG. 2, the soap case 21 includes a receiving portion 22 in which a bar of soap having a predetermined length Wa, width Wb and thickness Ta is received. The receiving portion 22 has a width which is greater than the thickness Ta and narrower than width Wb of the bar of soap 200. The bottom of the receiving portion 22 is angled with respect to the base of the case 21 and the side walls of the receiving portion 22 has a depth sufficient to receive and support the bar of soap 200 in an upright position as the wide surface 201 of the soap 200 is directed to the side wall. As a result, the received bar of soap 200 remains stably in an upright position and narrow side surfaces 202 thereof is at a predetermined angle. Thus, since water left at the narrow side surfaces 202 and the wide surfaces 201 can drain rapidly, the bar of soap 200 dries quickly.
However, in such a case, since the received bar of soap 200 contacts the side surfaces or the bottom surface 22 of the case 21 partially making a surface or line contact, the bar of soap 200 still softens partially. Also, when placing the bar of soap 200 into the case 21 without care, the bar of soap may get caught on the upper edge or at the bottom corner of the side surface of the receiving portion 22. That is, there is a need to guide the bar of soap 200 to be received voluntarily and to stand voluntarily in an upright position.